DETROIT -- Detroit Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom continues to be an
elite talent at an age when most players are retired or their skills
have deteriorated considerably.

Seldom in NHL history has a 40-year-old had so much impact on a team’s fortunes.

The
Red Wings are Stanley Cup contenders with Lidstrom. They would be
hard-pressed to make that claim without him. Fortunately for them, they
won’t have to worry about life without Lidstrom, for at least one more
year.

A source told Booth Newspapers on Monday that Lidstrom has decided to return for another season. The club is expected to finalize a
one-year contract extension this week with the six-time Norris Trophy
winner as the league’s top defenseman.

AP File PhotoNicklas Lidstrom and Detroit are expected to finalize a contract this week.Lidstrom always has kept his
cards close to the vest. Even teammates are left in the dark.

But
those who have played with him for any length of time, as well as many
in the Red Wings front office, have been supremely confident that he
would return.

Why? It’s simple, they said. Because he still has a lot of good hockey in him.

Lidstrom,
for only the second time in 12 seasons, was not a Norris Trophy
finalist in 2009-10. That was because of a slow start. He was one of
the top defensemen in the league the second half of the season. He
finished tied for eighth in points among defensemen (49) and tied for
seventh among defensemen in plus-minus rating (plus-22).

That’s all
the more impressive considering the team surrounding him wasn’t nearly
as strong the first three-quarters of the season due to a plethora of
injuries.

He once again averaged more than 25 minutes a game, playing all situations and against opponents’ top lines.

He
played in all 82 games. He has missed only 34 out of a possible 1,693
games, regular and playoffs, since entering the NHL in 1991. That is a
remarkable indication of his durability.

It is no coincidence that the Red Wings have qualified for the playoffs in each of Lidstrom’s 18 seasons (19 in a row overall).

That
streak surely will be extended. With high-end players in Lidstrom,
Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen and a strong
supporting cast, the Red Wings remain one of the more talented teams in
the Western Conference.

They will start 2010-11 with virtually the same team that lost to the San Jose Sharks in the second round of the playoffs, in addition to forward Jiri Hudler.

The Red Wings won’t have much
salary-cap space. The exact figure will depend on what Lidstrom earns
(probably between $5 million and $6 million, a slight reduction from
his $7.45 million salary) and how much the $56.8 million cap rises
(most anticipate it will be around $58 million).

They will sign a
forward, perhaps a third-line player with some offensive potential -- if
they have the cap space. If money is tight, they hope to at least
acquire a scrappy, inexpensive, fourth-line type.

They might sign a
low-priced veteran defenseman to compete with rookie Jakub Kindl for
the No. 6 spot, if they don’t re-sign Andreas Lilja.

There will be no significant trades or any kind of shake-up this offseason. They expect improvement to come from within.

Lidstrom surely expects they will be better. It undoubtedly factored into his decision.

Wayne
Gretzky retired at 38. Mario Lemieux’s last productive season was at
age 37. Steve Yzerman’s final game came eight days before his 41st
birthday, but he wasn’t nearly the same player after undergoing radical
knee surgery (osteotomy) four years earlier.

Mark Messier, Ray Bourque, Chris Chelios and Igor Larionov all were effective into their 40s.But they didn’t have the same impact at that age that Lidstrom does.

When
Lidstrom was cleaning out his locker on May 10, he hinted at a return
by saying he wasn’t sure if he had accomplished everything he wanted.